45-yr-old hit by car while crossing Yamuna Expressway, dies

Despite several warnings and criticism by the Yamuna Expressway industrial development authority, the laxity and negligence of the Jaypee Group in the maintenance of Yamuna Expressway is nowhere seems to be improving.

An example of the negligence came to light when a 45-year-old farmer died after being hit by car while he was trying to cross the Expressway on Sunday.

The deceased, identified as Pappu, was a resident of nearby Gharbarah village who was returning home from his farms. Following this, an angry mob blocked vehicular traffic on the highway.

Yamuna Expressway is an Expressway with constant speeding traffic which is fenced all through to avoid any entrance of humans or animals on the road.

Despite this, the locals have removed the fence from certain areas to ease the long walk to their homes.

The management is often unaware of these shortcuts, as are the drivers, who keep driving at fast speeds and are forced to stop only when they see some person suddenly on the road in their path.

“The incident occurred seven kilometre a from the zero point near Gautam Budh University, about 12:30pm on Sunday. The man was fatally injured and died at the spot. We are trying to identify the car as the driver along with the car ran away after hitting him. 

Some local people gathered at the accident spot and blocked the traffic” said Nand Kishor, Sub-Inspector, EcoTech First police station.

“We rushed to the spot along with the police force. The situation was brought under control after police intervened. An FIR has been registered against the driver. The CCTV footage will surely help us to identify the car. The body has been sent for post-mortem and the reports are still awaited” added Nand Kishor.

Over-speeding is amajor reason for the accidents on the Yamuna Expressway. Despite the speed limit stated to be of 100 km/hr, people are easily seen driving above 150 or sometimes 200 km/hr.

The highway patrolling guards are self-operated by Jaypee group for the Expressway. Complaints are often received from people, who claim that the patrolling guards “only keep staring at the vehicle instead of chasing and penalising them for over speeding.”

If the frequency of accidents on the Yamuna Expressway continues to stay high, soon it might be listed as an accident prone area and people will be compelled to avoid taking the Expressway.